Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Wow has it been a crazy summer. The second week in June, the Carter crew visited for a few days to kick off the summer of visitation. The boys spent DAYS outside in our new-to-us playground, while Tammy and I spent those peaceful days poolside.

The third week in June I took the boys to Hawley America and visited mi padres y mi seester. It was really nice to hang out for a few days with everyone and not be the one in charge of cooking (i.e. picking the place to eat out). My mom actually cooked while we were there, while poor Peter who was home alone continued the binge on take out. My mom also helped me make and embroider the boys bow ties! She has a fancy machine and is probably extremely tired of me sending her ideas of what to do next. While we were there I took advantage of free babysitting and "ran" the Summer Solstice with a friend from Denton. Saturday morning we hauled home to Peter and started packing for the Pennsylvania Carter reunion/Aunt's 90th Party.

The next Tuesday I woke early and loaded all three sleepy boys in our Truckasaurus at 4:30am so I could drive through Dallas before morning commuter traffic. It worked! We managed to drive farther than anticipated and stayed at a gorgeous state park in Tennessee. The next two days were 5 hr trips and a stay at a state park and SKYLINE DRIVE at Shenandoah National Park. We had the most amazing campsite! A10A at Loft Mountain if you ever go and stay in a tent. It is a reservable site and even the park ranger could not believe that the site was available for us. AWESOME!!! We hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail and Shenandoah trails. Pete calls it our preview trip to see if we would ever go to stay a week.

6 more hrs in the car and we arrived to Bear Creek Mountain Ski Resort. Hoping we could sneak in the back door to our room for a shower (after hiking that morning we needed it). But we were foiled with the eagle-eyed-Carter crew. No sooner had we parked the Truck out front they descended. I mainly blame Pete, he drove in circles around the parking lot for a good 15 minutes alerting anyone looking out a window. The next few days were spent with the oh so wonderful family! Aunt was amazing as always. The Crawford sisters loved my boys but could really care less for me or Peter. The Georgia Carters were hard to track down, when we did find them it was near the pool. The Butler kids were wonderful to be around, as always. Then you had the Bill and Nancy. Nancy was "decorator in charge" at the party and did a great job! Bill -- well he showed everyone up by crafting wooden treasure boxes for each kid. My boys have them storing their most prized possessions. Karen stayed at the spa most of the time, but when possible I was able to have a few drinks with her.
Sunday was the party and afterwards my crew loaded up and blasted out. We drove a solid 4 hours, slept, and a long 16hrs the next day. It was mostly uneventful if you don't count the guy wearing the Texas Tech shirt driving a u-haul that crunched our front bumper while we were fueling the truck. Poor guy was moving to Lexington (3 u-hauls -- I'm guessing they didn't do a lot of research on moving companies). Tuesday morning we drove out to Lake Norrell and went for a quick swim before finishing the last 5-1/2 hrs home.

Wednesday my sister, Jenn Jr and Brittany showed up, stayed the night. Thursday Jenn Jr, Matt and Christina stayed the night. Friday July 4th, Trista and Drew (from Omaha) stayed the night and our new TRANE a/c broke. A week later Trane miraculously found and programmed the right part to have us back working for the 100 degree days. During central air outage Trane also purchased us a window A/C unit and my cousin Amy and her two teenage boys stayed the night with us. The past Sunday Shayla and her friend Rachel (from omaha) stayed with us on their "we are adults now" road trip to Padre Island. In a few days they will come back through to rest before driving home to Omaha.
I wouldn't have it any other way! It has been a blessing to see everyone this month. Just maybe next time we can spread it out some.

Pete is traveling to Tampa Friday night for nanaJan's memorial. She went home to heaven while everyone was together in PA for Aunt's 90th. Regrettably the boys and I are not able to make the trip but that doesn't diminish our love for her and the sweet caring person she was.

You probably won't hear from me again until next month. Summer Session 2 started on monday and our 15th Anniversary is coming up followed by Ben's 9th birthday.